Broken Road
by alayneni
Summary: Felicity Smoak thought she was helping people in her hacktervist group that is until an intervention by the FBI causes her to cross paths with the vigilante of Starling City who burst that little bubble she was living in. AU.


**Broken Road**

 **An** : I do not own Arrow.

 **Summary:** Felicity Smoak thought she was helping people in her hacktervist group that is until an intervention by the FBI causes her to cross paths with the vigilante of Starling City who burst that little bubble she was living in. AU.

* * *

Felicity Smoak watched the limo that carried the newly married couple of Cooper Seldon and Brie Larvan drive away. Brie's words still echoing in her head, " _You Lost_." Anger surged through her system. Cooper had been her boyfriend throughout her time at MIT. He was hers until he met Brie. She had strolled into her life and taken everything that was Felicity's.

Together, Felicity and Cooper had started a hactervist group while still at goal was to use the World Wide Web to right wrongs. When they graduated they got an apartment together to continue their work. The apartment was located on the fifth floor of an old building with no working elevator. Most of the tenants weren't legal residents so no one ever complained about the lack of an elevator. It was the perfect place to stay off the radar. The only down side was walking up the flight of stairs every day, something Myron, one of their friends in the group, complained about every day.

Things were going great until one day Cooper introduced them to Brie Larvan. He had met her in a coffee shop and discovered that she too was a hacker. He wanted her to join their group. The other guys had no problem letting Brie in. She was blonde, very pretty, charming and the exact opposite of Felicity who was a Goth with jet black hair, purple streaks and an attitude to match. Felicity's objection was overruled by the majority and soon Brie was an active member.

A lot of attention shifted away from Felicity and towards Brie. They treated Brie like she was a goddess and Felicity was tossed aside. She stupidly thought she had to compete with Brie so she changed her look from a Goth, to a blonde with glasses. Her reason for blonde had nothing to do with Brie and more to do with her mother who never failed to attract attention. It was only after she looked in the mirror she realised that she had inadvertently made herself look a bit like Brie.

The first day the team saw her changed appearance, they all gave her dubious looks. She even caught them talking behind her back about how she was trying to look more like Brie. The day Felicity decided to go back to being a Goth was the day she caught Cooper in bed with Brie. It was the second most painful day of her life. Ironically, she never returned to her Goth look because the black dye was in the bathroom and that meant walking passed Cooper and Brie to get to it. Instead she returned to her computer and angrily crashed all of Cooper's and Brie's favourite sites.

She should have left the group at that point but the guys begged her to stay. She was their best hacker and without her they couldn't accomplish most of their goals. Felicity was proud of the work she did. She exposed corruption in major corporations and government. Several people had been put in jail because of the work she did. It was because of that Felicity stayed. She had the potential to help so many people.

Their base camp was moved from that fifth floor apartment to Brie's apartment that Cooper had moved into right away. Felicity chose to keep the fifth floor apartment, the stairs were a hassle but she didn't mind the exercise. She swore it was giving her killer legs. Her apartment was now a quiet place and for the first time in years, Felicity actually had time to herself. She started to develop a life for herself outside of her group. When Felicity's dark roots started to show, she decided to keep the blonde look. It helped her land IT consulting projects which provided her a source of income outside of the group.

She slowly grew more comfortable with the blonde look and she started to expand her wardrobe to dresses, most of which were sent by her mother for her. She felt like she was finally starting to settle into the person she was supposed to be. She had gone out on a few dates and she thought she was over Cooper. That was until Cooper proposed to Brie and she felt exactly how she felt the day she discovered Cooper was having the affair. It was a bitter pill to swallow.

Their group was happy and Felicity put on a fake smile for the benefit of the group. The people they helped needed her. She even swallowed her pride and agreed to help plan the wedding when Brie asked her. It was all a sacrifice for their larger mission. Brie was from Starling City and that was where the wedding was going to be held. Brie's and Cooper's families were invited as well as a large number of their hacker friends.

Felicity bitterly accepted the fact that Brie was right, she had lost Cooper and she had lost him long ago. She looked back into the reception hall. The boys were partying hard. They had the hall booked till midnight but at 11 they had to throw all the guests out and clean up. If they were in the hall a second over midnight, Cooper was going to be charged with a second's day rent and the hall was expensive. Felicity smirked. To hell with it all. She marched into the hall to the table where she hidden her bag and flats underneath it. She took off her heels placed it in the bag and put her flats on. She took out her tablet and searched for clubs. There was one three blocks away called Verdant. It was highly rated.

She walked passed Myron trying to seduce Brie's cousin and Lucas, a recruit of Brie's, dancing with Cooper's cousins. She was not going to help clean up this place. She was going to take the rest of the night to wallow in her self-pity alone. She made one stop to grab her coat beforeshe pulled up google maps and the live street cameras she had hacked into two days before. She had no cash on her to order a cab so she was going to walk. She made it to the club safely and before the 11pm deadline for ladies free. She marched straight up to the bar and slammed her credit card down. A young guy of average height with spiky hair came to her. She thought he could be an Abercrombie model.

"Five shots of tequila please," she demanded.

The boy's eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline.

"Did I babble? I'm fairly sure I didn't babble. I know I got straight to the point. Five shots of tequila now!" she said tapping her credit card.

The boy seemed to come out of his stupor and poured out five shots. He watched in utter amazement as she tossed back each shot in a matter of seconds. She was the daughter of a Vegas waitress. Her mother had taught her how to drink from an early age. She could handle most types of liquor. The one that she had no tolerance for was vodka. The few times she had tried vodka she had ended up worshiping the porcelain god.

The tequila started to affect her fast but she had stored up on the greasy foods earlier suspecting that she might have wanted to hit the bottle harder than usual so it didn't hit her as hard as it could have. She knew five was pushing it but she did want to get a little drunk. She wouldn't be all out trashed. She changed into her heels, handed the guy at the bar her bag and ordered him to store it in a safe place or else she would make him regret it. He did exactly as she said. She made her way to the dance floor and let the alcohol work its way through her system. Men tried to dance with her but she glared them off. A one night stand was not what she needed. It would just complicate her life more. Not to mention the possibilities of an STD or pregnancy, neither of which she thought she had the strength to deal with at the moment. She let the alcohol cloud her mind a bit so that she could get lost in the beat of the music.

Before she knew it, it was 2am and the club was closing. She walked over to the bar and the guy had a club soda and tortilla chips waiting for her with her bag. She took off her heels and changed back into her flats.

"This isn't spiked is it?" she asked.

"Why would I spike the drink of a woman who threatened me?" he asked.

"Good," she said drinking it in one go before munching on the chips.

As the crowd was slowly leaving, Felicity's mind began to clear a bit. She realised that she was in a club in the bad part of Starling City and she needed to get back to the rundown motel. She pulled up the camera feeds on her tablet and the streets looked clear. She vaguely remembered reading about a group of vigilantes that kept crime low in the Glades.

"Thanks for the good time," Felicity said hopping off the bar stool.

"Wait, should I call you a cab?" he asked his eyes full of concern.

"No thanks, I'm good," she said.

The wind was blowing cold and she wrapped her coat around tightly. She had the bag with her heels in one hand, and her tablet in the other. She studied the camera feeds closely as she walked through the streets. Every so often she would stop and turn around. She swore someone was following her but she couldn't see anyone and cameras showed no one walking behind her. Perhaps it was one of the vigilantes curious about her. She imagined she made for quite an unusual site.

The police had yet to capture any of the vigilantes on camera. For them to avoid the cameras though, they would have to move around above them. She looked up to the roof tops and she thought she saw a flash of red duck for cover. She stared at the spot for a few more minutes before she decided to keep moving. Standing around staring would only increase her chances of getting into a bad situation.

With two blocks to go the camera feed revealed a group of men hanging out around the corner up ahead. Her route to the motel took her passed them but Felicity wasn't taking that chance. She asked for a new route and had to double back two blocks to take another road. She double checked behind her again and thought she saw something green watching her at the top of the building across the road. When she focused in on the spot, nothing was there. Maybe it was the tequila playing tricks on her mind. In retrospect it probably was not smart to have five shots.

The double back added an extra 30 minutes to her walking time and she was exhausted but thankfully the motel was just around the next corner. As soon as she turned the corner, she spotted a police car. Standing next to the police car was Myron in handcuffs. She ducked back behind the corner. She peeked out again to see him being pushed into the back of a cruiser. Felicity realised with horror that the cops had found them. She knew hacking was a crime but as far she was aware, the authorities did not know their real identities. She slunk into the shadows as the car drove off. Were they looking for her? Was it safe to go into the motel and get her stuff?

She peeked around the corner and saw another car pull up. This time Lucas got out and he had an FBI jacket on. She knew he couldn't be trusted. Brie had brought him in. She had objected but as usual she was overruled. She thought maybe Brie had been sleeping with Lucas but she couldn't find any evidence to take to Cooper.

She pulled out her tablet and hacked into the FBI. She found an arrest warrant for herself and everyone in the group as well as the other hackers that had been at the wedding. She belatedly realised what a gold mine that wedding had been for the FBI. Several of the world's top hackers were there. According to an arrest report, everyone at the reception was arrested and Cooper and Brie had been intercepted at the airport. She was the only one to escape thus far. Felicity couldn't help but allow herself a soft smirk. Brie wanted everything Felicity had, well now she had the jail time as well.

The local police force and the FBI were searching for her. No one could track her phone or had made sure of that years ago and the credit card she used wasn't under her name. It was one of her fake identities she created because she didn't want Brie to know how she spent her time when she wasn't with the group. They would have no idea where she went. Her stomach grumbled. She needed to get some food. She used her tablet to search for 24/7 food places and was pleasantly surprised when she found a big belly burger. She would make a quick stop there collect some food and then concentrate on her next move.

* * *

The familiar smell of grease comforted her as she entered Big Belly Burger. There were no cops around and the police and FBI chatter said they were looking for her around the reception hall. They were trying to find her on the street cameras but Felicity had a program erasing her image from the cameras so they would never be able to track her that way. She ordered a big belly buster and a chocolate milkshake, then sat at a table in the back that was close to the rear exit and had a great view of the front door. It was how she saw the Abercrombie bartender from Verdant enter with a taller man. His companion was the most handsome man Felicity had ever seen and when his eyes landed on hers she looked away immediately. She was sure she was blushing. She had never been in to men with facial hair but he wore a five o'clock shadow well.

She did not need to get distracted. She had to focus on her next move. She needed to get out of Starling City. They probably raided her apartment and their base in Boston already. Everything would be gone. All she had was her secret account and the items with her.

"Mind if we join you Blondie," Felicity's eyes snapped up to the bartender.

Her mouth floundered for a response and the handsome guy pushed passed the bartender and seated himself opposite her.

"Hi, I'm Oliver," he said.

Felicity stared at him. His eyes were piercing blue. His hair was a bit spiky in front, some strands blonde some brown. He had on a simple grey t-shirt but it was the way the shirt fit him that made butterflies erupt in her stomach. She could tell he was very toned under that shirt.

"Usually this is the part where the girl says her name," he commented with a smile.

Felicity nodded stupidly. While that was true, she was a wanted felon. She couldn't give him her name. She tried to remember what the name on the credit card was but her brain was epically failing her at the moment. The bartender guy seemed to take pity on her.

"My name's Roy and we know you're in trouble. We can help you," he said quietly. He was still standing awkwardly at the side of the table.

"Help me?" her mouth said before her eyes narrowed and she looked accusingly at them, "Who the hell are you!"

"I'm Roy and he's Oliver," Roy said stupidly.

"That does not answer my question," she fired back.

Oliver sighed frustratingly and she noticed that he was rubbing his forefinger and thumb together. That was a strange habit. She bit her nails or ate a tub of ice cream when she was frustrated.

"Sorry to waste your time," Oliver said standing up but Roy stopped him.

"No, I know I'm right about this Oliver. You're always telling me to trust my gut and my gut says we should take a chance on her. I saw her tap into the street cameras on her tablet and all our inside sources at the police department say they can't find a trace of her on the system. Plus the warrant for her arrest has to do with IT. We need an IT person on our team. We're operating in the dark ages."

"It's too risky Roy. She is a wanted criminal," Oliver hissed.

"I was a criminal but you took a chance on me. I want to pay that chance forward. Look at her, she's not a criminal," Roy insisted.

"She stole money and used it to fund terrorist organisations," Oliver countered angrily.

"What! I never did any such thing. The work I did was only to help people. I exposed the corruption in Central City, I was the one that proved that Lex Corp was breaking the environmental laws and poisoning the people in National City," Felicity said speaking up to defend herself.

"Were you also the one that hacked Queen Consolidated and transferred money to an organisation called HIVE that used it to purchase the explosives used in the suicide bombings in Havenrock?" Oliver snapped.

Felicity's mouth opened and closed. She remembered the Queen Consolidated job. She did do the initial hack but Cooper and Brie were supposed to transfer the money to all of the steel workers that the company had stiffed on their pensions and health care when they laid them off.

"I… what? No, that wasn't what happened," Felicity said shaking her head in denial.

Before they could continue the conversation any further, Felicity saw the flashing lights of a police cruiser pull up. She needed to get out of there fast. She rewrapped her burger, put it in the bag and stood up.

"If you would excuse me gentleman, I need to go," she said before walking to the back entrance.

Roy and Oliver chose to follow after her.

She spun around to face them again, "Leave me alone. I don't need your help."

"The Glades is a dangerous place at night," Oliver said. She had to tilt her head up to look him in the eye. God was he tall. He was over a head taller than her.

"Newsflash, I've been safe all night," she fired back. "And the sun is about to rise."

"That's because we were following you Blondie," Roy blurted out much to Oliver's disapproval.

"It was you on the roof!" she said before something else clicked, "You're the vigilantes."

The way Oliver's body stiffened told her she was right.

"Of course not," Roy said. "I just wanted to make sure you got where you were going safely. You refused to take a cab."

"Nice try but your friend here already gave it away with his body language," Felicity said chucking her thumb at Oliver.

The door at the front of the restaurant opened and Felicity resumed walking to the back door. Soon the cold air was hitting her face. Her research had shown her there was a homeless shelter two blocks away. She could hide out there. She started walking well aware of her two shadows behind her.

"You're going to the homeless shelter on Adams," Oliver said falling into step next to her.

Felicity ignored him.

"I don't think you quite have the look to pull off homeless," Oliver quipped.

Her head snapped towards him, "I can go to a thrift store later and buy suitable attire."

He slowed his speed so that he was just behind her and she felt a pressure behind her head before her vision went black.

* * *

Felicity fought the return to consciousness. In her dream she was standing on top the altar with Cooper and Brie cowering at her feet begging her for mercy. She had everything in her dream and she didn't want to return to a world where Cooper and Brie had everything. The first thing she became aware of was the hard metal under her back. She rolled on to her side to see if that was more comfortable but it wasn't so she continued rolling to try her stomach but she ended up falling. She must have rolled over the side. Her eyes flew open but she was caught by a strong pair of arms before she hit the ground. She followed the arms up pass a pair of firm biceps up to the piercing blue eyes of Oliver. Panic started to set in.

"Where am I?" she asked. She tried to kick away from him but he was too strong.

"Looks like sleeping beauty is finally awake," a female voice said.

Her gaze snapped to a woman with long blonde hair dressed in black. She had never seen her before.

"You kidnapped me!" Felicity accused Oliver.

"That he did but don't worry. Digg gave him an extremely long lecture about that," the woman said with an amused expression.

"This is Roy's fault, Sara," Oliver said with a sullen look. He was still holding her and she was still trying to get free.

"No, Roy wanted to **invite** her to join. You were the one that decided on your own to **kidnap** her," the woman called Sara said.

"She knew we were the vigilantes," Oliver said in his defense.

"And now she knows what our lair looks like," Sara pointed out.

Felicity continued to struggle through their entire conversation.

"Use your elbow or your knee love," Sara advised. "Or go for his eyes or throat."

Felicity did as instructed and Oliver found himself having to block more powerful blows and defend his face.

"She definitely is a quick study. I like her. I vote to keep her."

"Keep me! I'm not some pet," Felicity shouted.

"No but you need a safe place and we can keep you safe Felicity but in return we would just like some of cyber expertise. It would really help us improve the way we protect the citizens of Starling City."

"You want me to help you protect people," Felicity asked calming a bit.

"Yes," Sara responded.

"Oh well why didn't you just say that the first time," Felicity said giving up her fight entirely.

Oliver watched her warily.

"Before we get ahead of ourselves," Oliver said throwing a pointed glance at Sara, "I need to know if you were responsible for what's on your arrest warrant." He had walked over to a computer system and pulled up the warrant.

Felicity hadn't bothered to read what they wanted to arrest her for, "That thing looks like it came out of the 80s and not the good part of the 80s. How is it still functioning?" she asked.

"Sit and read," he said.

Felicity sat in the chair and started reading the warrant.

"I did those hacks," Felicity admitted. "But that is not where the money went!" she insisted."Brie said the organisations we were donating to were helping build schools in Africa or build wells for villages that had no source of water. I did what I did to help people. The corporations I sank were bad. They did more harm than good."

"Can you prove the funds you stole went to the organisations you claim?" Sara challenged.

"Yeah, I can access the account I sent it to and see where Cooper and Brie diverted the funds too but I need a better computer set up than this," she said.

"Write down what you need? I'll use this one's credit card and get it," Sara said pointing at Oliver.

It took Felicity about ten minutes to figure out what type of system she thought they would need to run as an effective unit. She handed the very long list to Sara.

Sara whistled, "That's a long list."

Felicity gave her a smirk, "I hope my kidnapper has deep pockets."

Sara laughed, "I assure you he does. After all, you stole from him once before."

Felicity's brow furrowed as Sara walked away from her. She hadn't stolen from any individuals just corporations.

"Wait," Felicity cried out. "You're leaving me here alone with him? He kidnapped me!"

Sara smiled at her, "Darling if he wanted to hurt you, he would have done it eight hours ago when he knocked you out."

Felicity sighed. Her eyes surveyed the lair closer before falling on Oliver.

"What did she mean by I stole from you?" she asked him.

"You don't recognise me?" he asked in disbelief.

"No," she said flatly. "I'm not from Star City and I probably spend too much time in front of a computer coding," she admitted.

"Felicity Smoak," he said holding out his hand, "I'm Oliver Queen,"

Felicity's jaw dropped open. Queen as in Queen Consolidated. No wonder he was so angry about that hack when they spoke earlier.

"This is usually where the girl shakes my hand," he said breaking her out of her inner dialogue.

"Oh," she said as she placed her hand in his. She tried not to notice how her hand disappeared into his much larger hand, or the calluses on his hand that rubbed gently against her hand. She tried to ignore the butterflies and the surge of electricity that shot through her at his touch. She tried and she hoped she succeeded.

* * *

Felicity had been living in the lair for the last week. It took her two days to set up the new computer system but when she was done she was very proud of herself. It was better than her system in Boston but it still took her a long time to find the money trails. The FBI hackers had been sniffing around and they had no finesse. It was the equivalent of blasting a pebble with dynamite instead of gently moving it to the side.

Just after midnight, Felicity made the horrific discovery that Brie had been funneling the money to terrorist organisations. Felicity then decided to hack all of Brie's accounts. She was horrified to discover Brie was a member of HIVE. From what she had learned from the team, HIVE was dedicated to creating a new world by wiping out the old one.

"I did it," she said as she sat back in her seat, tears pooling in her eyes. She had inadvertently been responsible for the destruction in Havenrock and every life that had been extinguished with it.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at her babysitter for the night, a tall man that went by the name Digg. What type of name that was she didn't know but he seemed quite comfortable with it. She wondered if he had been teased at school but with his size, the bullies would have had to think twice about that.

"Felicity," he said. "I was posted in Afghanistan. I killed kids because command said that was what I was supposed to do. That was for the greater good. What you did, you thought you were doing for the greater good. You put your trust in the wrong people. I trusted my fellow officers and they turned around and framed me for selling the explosives that was used in Havenrock. We've both been burned."

Felicity nodded. During her time in the lair, she learned that Digg was the level headed one, Roy was the novice and Sara, while serious at times, could be fun as well. Sara was Sara Lance, daughter of police Captain Quentin Lance and sister of Assistant District Attorney, Laurel Lance, who were both very much on the anti-vigilante train. She thought that was ironic but then when she decided to read up on Oliver she realised the team members were probably a lot more interconnected than she thought.

Laurel Lance was the ex-girlfriend of Oliver Queen. The one the gossip rags said was going to be Mrs. Queen. That was until he fathered a child with a girl called Samantha Clayton. There wasn't much available about the child but she did a little bit of cyber-sleuthing and found a boy named William living with Samantha in Central City. There was a monthly payment from Oliver's account to Samantha so at least he was not ditching her on the child support. After Laurel, he went through a string of women until his father died in one of the explosions in Havenrock. That bit of information had blown her away. Mr. Queen had been there on a secret rendezvous with a female intern. It was months before Oliver was seen with another woman. His current girlfriend was a model who, according to the gossip sites was tearing up the runways across the world. The company was being run by Walter Steele and Oliver was the Vice President of Operations.

She realised that everyone in the group was connected through Oliver but she had no idea what motivated each person to be a vigilante. It was Oliver, Digg, Sara and Roy. The command followed that structure. Oliver was clearly the leader and his word was supposedly law in the lair. He acted first then dealt with the consequences afterwards. A good example was her kidnapping.

The lair she was below Verdant which was apparently opened by Oliver Queen and his best friend, Tommy Merlyn but managed by his younger sister, Thea Queen. She wasn't sure if the other two were aware of what was located in the basement of the club. In the week she had been there, she hadn't seen them but judging from all the connections, she realised that Oliver liked to keep everything and everyone he cared about as close as possible.

Living in the lair had not been bad. Sara brought her everything she required and she had access to the bar upstairs. Of course she paid for the bottles she took. She was teaching Sara about wine, introducing Roy to Dr. Who, extolling the virtues of Big Belly Burger to Digg and avoiding Oliver at all costs, which was hard to do since the lair wasn't very big and he just had to do the salmon ladder in front of her every fricking day. She supposed it could have been much worse, she could be in a jail cell.

It was that morbid thought that made her look into where Cooper was being held. Most of the guests had been released. Her group and the other hackers were in a federal prison. There was a lot of finger pointing and they were pointing it at her, claiming her terrorist buddies must have warned her about the raid and that was why she escaped. They claimed she manipulated them. They pointed to her criminal father, her waitress mother and Vegas roots to claim she was a bad apple. The accusations had upset her. These were people who she knew well; who she thought knew her well. She couldn't believe that they thought she was capable of that.

An alert came up on one of the three monitors she had installed.

"What's that?" Digg asked pointing at the screen.

"Break-in at Tucker Chemicals," she said pulling up the information connected to the alert.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"I have a program that's monitoring police alerts," she said.

Digg opened the comms, "Green Arrow. Break-in at Tucker Chemicals, I believe you are the closest."

"On it," his gruff voice responded.

"I got your back Green Arrow," another voice Felicity recognised as Sara responded.

Felicity pulled up a map with two black dots on it. After a little bit of typing the dot closest to Tucker Chemicals became Green.

"I'm at the facility, there's a hole in the side of the building I'm going in," Oliver said.

"Wait for me," Sara said.

"No time," Oliver said roughly.

On another screen Felicity pulled up the layout of the building. She patched into the security feed to follow Oliver through the building. The sound of gunfire coming through the comms caused Felicity to jump. She had never heard real live gunfire before. It was startling. Felicity was watching the camera feed when a group of men on another camera caught her eye. She sat up straighter, "Digg," she said her voice full of concern. "They're boxing him in!"

"Canary, how far away are you? There's a secondary group of men that are trying to box Oliver in," he said.

"I'm still two minutes out," she said the sound of her motorcycle going at top speed in the background.

"Shit," Digg said.

"Oliver," Felicity said. "I need you to go down the corridor to your left and then take another left," she said.

"That route is going to take him straight to the other set of men," Digg pointed out.

"Yes but he can get out through that door," Felicity said pointing to a secure steel door on the map. "It's either that or eat bullets. I know I'm the last person you would trust but I think this is his only chance," Felicity pleaded.

Digg nodded, "Follow her instructions Green Arrow."

Oliver ran to the corridor on his left, just as he made it to the next corridor, the other group appeared in the corridor and started shooting at him. He ducked into the corridor Felicity had instructed and started running to the metal door.

"Felicity, there is a security lock on the door," he said angrily.

"Don't worry I got ya," she said light-heartedly.

Just as he reached the door, the light on the lock turned green and the door clicked open. Oliver pushed the door shut behind him just in time to avoid a hail of bullets.

"According to the map, they develop chemicals for the military in this section but there is an emergency exit at the end of the building. Just follow the corridor you're in all the way to the end and exit through the door there," she said typing away.

"I'm on site," Sara's voice said.

"There are too many of them," Digg said. "Stay back."

"I see them, they are getting into a van," she said.

"I'm out," Oliver's voice came over the comms.

"They're gone," Sara said.

"Shit!" Oliver ground out angrily.

"Night's over, come on in," Digg ordered.

* * *

Felicity was alone in the lair with Oliver after everyone had left. He was still frustrated about the men getting away and he was attacking the training dummy in the corner. She wondered why he did not go home to his mansion or hot model girlfriend, who was in town, she checked. It would be impossible to get any sleep on her little cot with his grunting and growling so she was looking at the inventory list at Tucker Chemicals to figure out what was stolen. When the sounds stopped she realised he was near her.

"Is there anything I can do for you Oliver?" she asked.

"Thank you," he said. She spun around on her chair to face him.

"For what?" she asked confused.

"Saving my life," he said, his blue eyes boring into hers.

Felicity snorted. "I'm sure you would have found a way out."

"Maybe, but I wouldn't have gotten out without an injury," he insisted.

She cast her eyes downwards, "You were right about the terrorist link," she said softly. "I deserve to go to jail."

"Felicity if you deserve to go to jail, then I should be thrown in a dark cell and the key thrown away. Roy was right about you and don't tell him I said that," he said pointing his finger at her.

"My lips are sealed," Felicity said mimicking zipping her lips shut.

"Welcome to the team Felicity," Oliver said with a soft genuine smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

"I get to join Team Arrow?" she asked excitedly.

"We don't call it that," he said.

"You do now," she said with a large smile.

That night when Felicity closed her eyes to sleep, she felt like she had stumbled upon what it was she was meant to do but she couldn't live down there forever. She needed to clear her name and somehow let her mom know that she was ok. She would start working on that tomorrow as well as find a way to atone for all of the damage that HIVE had done with the money she had stolen for them.

* * *

 **An:** Did Lyla's comment about Felicity being a problem if she wasn't on board with the plan upset anybody? It really really pissed me off. What was she going to do if Oliver said yes Felicity was a problem? I also think Felicity has a point because contrary to what Lyla said about Digg coming home to his wife and child, he can't live with them. He's officially a criminal now even though he's an innocent man.


End file.
